As an African-American Studies Professor, I long ago realized the sickening reality that America’s traditions of unadulterated irony and shameless contradiction began when slave owner Thomas Jefferson penned the words that “All men are created equal.” In the wake of the most pregnant moment in this nation’s history, America birthed a disappointing child that has yet to display character traits such as truth, justice, and honor. Such failings has forced African-Americans to engage in a never-ending battle for crucial politico-economic resources.

The battlefield for this contest is a political arena that theoretically provides all Americans some level of influence via its “one man, one vote” ethos. Unfortunately, a cursory examination of American history displays that many times, “the franchise”, the most crucial component in America’s Representative Democracy, has not always been accessible to all Americans.

Succeeding generations will review this moment in time and pen a historical record that details the shocking reality that the vast majority of our contemporaries lacked understanding of the vote’s supreme utility. There is no greater evidence for this assertion than the average American’s propensity to vote against their interests.

Poor and working-class Americans’ penchant to vote against their interests has grown to a level that the time has arrived for decisive action. This unbridled display of ignorance must be stopped “by any means necessary.”

Although I assert the following with a heavy heart, it is time that this nation to institute a logic test as a prerequisite for access to the franchise. As a historian of the African-American experience, any call for a qualifying test prior to the casting of a vote terrorizes doesn’t sit well within my soul. I am well-versed in the literacy tests and other qualifiers used by Whites to prevent Blacks from voting in this nation. However, desperate times call for desperate measures. America needs to be protected from the hordes of uninformed voters whose allegiance is won via phrase-mongering instead of proposed political policy.

I am certain that a few skeptics will consider this call a covert means of lessening the influence of a particular political party, it is not. This request flows from a desperate attempt to save America from low information voters guided by emotion, not intelligence.

One could argue that one of the fatal flaws of America’s Representative Democracy is that it provides all citizens an opportunity to voice their opinion via the vote; unfortunately, those political utterances are increasingly motivated by everything but intelligence. Unfortunately for Democracy’s sake, far too many Americans have proven incapable of evaluating their present situation and voting with an enlightened understanding of where the nation needs to go in the future for their lives to improve.

It is a bit embarrassing that the most marginalized among us are not the most engaged in the political process. They have yet to understand that their non-participation dooms them to continued politico-economic marginality. Unfortunately for the sake of Democracy and equality, America’s poor and working-class citizens have detached from the political process and doomed themselves to an inheritance of misery and suffering. Political strategies of misinformation will never cease by the ruling class as it is a primary pillar in the maintenance of their power quotient. It is only through voter education that this gross exploitation can be appropriately addressed. There appears to be no better way to guarantee the generation of an informed voting populace than to place an obstacle in front of the voting booth. Hopefully, it would raise the general understanding of Americans whose ability to voice their concerns via the ballot is a foundational principle of our representative democracy; I just hope that they have something substantial when they enter the voting booth.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

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